Zahedan Journal of Research in Medical Sciences
Volume:15 Issue: 7, Jul 2013

Various factors affects men fertility and oxidative stress as an important factor which affects fertility has recently got great concern. Oxidative stress refers to conditions of imbalance between productions of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidant defense mechanism. Reactive species of oxygen, free radicals and peroxide are produced in the cell when metabolism of oxygen is incomplete in the mitochondrial respiratory chain. In this review we will consider effect of oxidative stress on male fertility and the principal antioxidant defences. Factors such as hypoxia, cytokines, growth factors, chemotherapy, radio frequency waves and UV radiation can increase ROS production. Oxidative stress as one of the strongest physiological factors can lead to damage of sperm and reduction of seminal plasma quality and thereby cause infertility in men. Enzymatic and non-enzymatic defences inhibit oxidant attack. The enzymatic defense include: superoxide dismutases, glutathione peroxidases, and catalase. The non-enzymatic defences include ascorbate (vitamin C) and a-tocopherol (vitamin E), beta carotene, and albumin, which neutralize free radicals. Oxidative stress affects male fertility through induction of lipid peroxidation, inactivation of proteins, impair of sperm motility and DNA damage.

PFGE facilitates the differential migration of large DNA fragments through agarose gel by constantly changing the direction of the electrical field during electrophoresis. Possibility of high difference between strains and repeatability make PFGE one of the strong molecular methods in study of bacterial strains in epidemiology. To identifying and DNA fingerprinting of vaccine strain of Clostridium tetani by PFGE technique. Also, possibility of genotyping profile changes in frequency of vaccine strain of C. tetani during the period of 1990 to 2011. The vaccine strain of C. tetani was provided by Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute in Karaj. The seeds were inoculated into Columbia blood agar and grown for 72 h. The cultures were incubated at 35°C in anaerobic conditions. The PFGE analyses were performed using genomic DNA digested with the restriction enzyme SmaI. The electrophoresis analyses were carried out on a CHEF DR III apparatus (Bio-Rad) and band patterns obtained were then analyzed. The PFGE profile obtained from vaccine strain during a period of more than two decades revealed no remarkable genetic changes and mutations. This type of analysis provides detailed data useful for surveillance of vaccine strains and isolates as well as for the selection of certain predominant profiles for further investigation. This study showed no considerable change in chromosomal genome of Harvard, the vaccine strain. It is therefore concluded that the vaccine produced by Razi Inst. had evidently no alteration or modification in accordance to PFGE profile analysis during a period of more than two decades.

The daily stress and shift working cause insomnia. In other hands, fatty food consumption increased this disorder. The aim of present study is evaluation additive effect of partial insomnia and high fatty diet with or without vitamin C on serum lipid profile in rats. Fifty six rats in 7 groups (8 rats each group) were conducted for study during 26 days as: 1: normal diet+normal sleep, 2: high fatty diet+normal sleep, 3: normal diet+insomnia, 4: high fatty diet+insomnia, 5: high fatty diet+normal sleep+vitamin C, 6: high fatty diet+insomnia+vitamin C, 7: normal diet+insomnia+ vitamin C. The lipid profile was examined at end of study. Results shown the high fatty diet+insomnia increased triglyceride, LDL, VLDL level and decreased HDL level with comparison to high fatty diet+normal sleep group. But only insomnia did not change serum lipid profile. High fatty diet increased level of cholesterol (p<0.05). The normal diet increased body weight but high fatty diet decreased it significantly. Liver weight ratio was elevated by high fatty diet+insomnia. The vitamin C decreased cholesterol and increased HDL level in group of rats which received high fatty diet+insomnia. In conclusion, the present study shown the only insomnia did not affect on serum lipid profile while insomnia along with high fatty diet increased lipid high risk factors in blood.

This study was investigating the effect of electromagnetic wave generated by mobile and base transceiver station (900 MHz) on liver enzymes in both mature and immature female age. In this study, 20 rats Sprague Dawley white mature female age 8 to 9 weeks and weight 180 to 200 g and 20 rats immature age 3 to 4 weeks, weight 80 to 100 g, each age group were randomly divided in two groups (control and test). Test groups, were daily for four hours and four different times exposed to electromagnetic waves with signal generator (900 MHz), 5-meter intervals. Control groups were kept at equal condition (themperature and light) in laboratory during experiment. After at the end experimental period, blood was collected by heart puncture of all animal. Exposure to EMF generated by BTS had significant effect on liver enzymes composition in mature and immature rats. AST, ALT and ALP in immature-test groups decreased significantly compared with their respective control groups (p<0.05). ALP in mature-test groups increased significantly compared with their respective control groups (p<0.05). These result suggest that exposure to EMF generated by BTS has a deleterious effect on liver enzymes and that this effect is more sever in immature animals.

According to beneficial effects of endurance training and vitamin D3 in diabetes mellitus, purpose of this study is effects submaximal endurance training and vitamin D3 supplementation on pain threshold in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats. Male Wistar rats (250±20 g, N=40) were made diabetic by streptozotocin (60 mg/kg, subcutaneously). 72 h after injection diabetes induction was confirmed by tail vein blood glucose concentration (>300 mg/dl). Then animals were divided to five groups: diabetic control (DC), diabetic trained (DT), diabetic -vitamin D (DD), diabetic trained and vitamin D (DTD), and control (C). Animals were submitted to endurance training by treadmill and vitamin D3 treatment (twice aweek, intrapretonally) for 4 weeks. 48 h after at the end of exercise and treatment protocol, we used tail-flick to assess the effects of training and vitamin D3 on thermal pain threshold. We used one way ANOVA statistical analysis to compare differences between groups, significance level of p<0.05 was considered. Diabetic induced hyperalgesia were decreased significantly by vitamin D but not 4 weeks endurance exercise training. Concurrent effects of training and vitamin D on thermal pain threshold were not significantly higher than vitamin D effects alone. It is concluded that vitamin D administration given at the time of diabetes induction may be able to restore thermal hyperalgesia. But effects of endurance exercise training needs to more investigation in diabetic rats.

Huntington disease (HD) is a dominantly inherited, neurodegenerative disease characterized by choreiform movement disturbances and dementia. The onset age of this disease is varied but usually is between the ages 40-50. Huntington''s disease is caused by a triplet-repeat expansion in the IT15 gene (also known as huntingtin or HD) which is located on chromosome 4p3.1. Since many clinical picture of HD are indistinguishable from other distinct genetic disorders molecular test such as PCR is the only way to confirm the disease. The aim of this study was to introduce a new and fast technique for the diagnosis of Huntington disease. Blood specimens were collected from individuals suspected for Huntington disease and also people with no symptoms and family history of this disease. DNAs were extracted according to standard protocol. Using conventional PCR, patient positive for Huntington disease were diagnosed. Then employing real time PCR on the basis of difference between melting temperature (Tm) a new and fast diagnostic method was introduced. Among 29 patients suspected to be HD only 8 HD patients were confirmed using PCR and real time PCR. The numbers of CAG repeat were between 42-50 and melting temperatures were between 89-92. The concept of using melting temperature in real time PCR protocol presented in here could be employed for the rapid diagnosis of the diseases caused by the increased in triple repeat sequences. It is fast, robust and has the potential use for the prenatal diagnosis.

Resistance to wide range of structurally and functionally different chemotherapy drugs acts as a major obstacle in the cancer therapy. There are different mechanisms that cause multi drug resistance (MDR) but the most important one is ATP Binding Cassette (ABC) transporters super-family that increases the ability of tumor cells to transport drugs out of the cells by using ATP molecule, over expression of these proteins such as MDR1 and MRP1 is responsible for MDR phenotype in cancerous cells. We analyzed the expression level of MDR1/MRP1genes by using Real time RT-PCR in 60 colorectal cancer patients also we investigate their relationship with clinical, Para-clinical characterizes of colorectal cancer patients and their responses to treatment. The expression of the MDR1 gene showed a significant increase in cancerous regions compared to adjacent normal tissue. In addition the expression of MDR1 gene showed association with histological grade of tumors but expression level of MRP1 was not significantly important. Our study once more emphasizes the effects of MDR1 over expression which impact on response to drugs in Iranian colorectal cancer patients.

Chronic hepatitis C is a major concern for global health as it causes liver problems, cirrhosis and liver cancer. Immune factors have a determinant role in susceptibility to chronic infection or clearance of infection in body. As a defensive agent, cytokines are important factors of immune system, since they can activate immune response or inhibit virus replication directly. The aim of this study is the evaluation of interleukin 20 polymorphism (rs1518108) in hepatitis C patients. This survey was a case–control study. By using PCR-RFLP method, 105 patients and 135 controls were studied randomly. We used SPSS-16 software for statistical analysis. A significant association was found between polymorphism (rs1518108) of interleukin 20 and hepatitis C patients (p=0.035) (OR=2.283). The incidence of hepatitics C in males was observed five times more than that one females (p=0.01) (OR=5.18). In addition, no significant association between polymorphism of genotypes and liver harms (chronic and cirrhosis) was found in this study (p=0.362). Our findings show that variants of interleukin 20 polymorphism (rs1518108) in the population of the study are important factors for being affected by hepatitis C. The incidence of heterozygote allele CT was more than of homozygote genotype TT.

Orexinergic projection originated from the lateral hypothalamus (LH) to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) has an important role in the acquisition of drug conditioned place preference (CPP). In the present study, we tried to evaluate the effect of LH stimulation on conditioned place preference paradigm and role of CB1 receptors located in the VTA in development of reward-related behaviors in rats. One hundred twenty adult male Wistar rats weighing 220-330 g were unilaterally implanted by two separate cannulae into the LH and VTA. The CPP paradigm was done. Our findings showed that unilateral intra-LH administration of carbachol (62.5, 125 and 250 nmol/0.5 µl saline), during conditioning phase, induced CPP in a dose-dependent manner. Additionally, intra-VTA administration of AM251 (5, 25 and 125 nmol/0.3 µl DMSO) as a CB1 receptor antagonist, just 5 min before carbachol during the 3-day conditioning phase, could dose dependently inhibit the development of LH stimulation-induced CPP in the rats. It is supposed that the projection from LH to VTA is involved in LH chemical stimulation-induced CPP and CB1 receptor in the VTA has a modulatory role in this phenomenon.

The adverse effects of periodontitis on dental pulp have long been argued. The purpose of this study was to investigate stereological indices of dental pulp in patients with advanced periodontitis compared with healthy people. In this case-control study, 15 single-rooted permanent teeth of patients with advanced periodontal diseases and that of people with healthy periodontium, as control group, were investigated. All teeth were intact, and without filling and decay. After tissue processing, longitudinal serial sections of the tooth were prepared and stained by Masson’s trichrome. A grid containing organized points superimposed on the images of each section randomly. Then, the points hit with each subject were counted. The volume of pulp and its components in both groups were estimated, using Cavalieri’s principle. Data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U test. The significance level was considered as p<0.05. No significant difference was observed between the groups in terms of inflammation and calcification intensity (p<0.05). Microscopic evaluations of tissue sections showed significant increase in predentin thickness in periodontitis group than control group (p<0.05). In addition, statistically significant reduction was observed in periodontitis group with respect to pulp absolute volume, volume density, odontoblastic layer absolute volume, collagen fibers absolute volume, and absolute pulp blood vessels volume, compared with control group (p<0.05). Results showed periodontal disease affects stereological parameters of pulp. Because of reduction of pulp volume and narrowing of root canal, precise diagnostic and therapeutic considerations are recommended during treatment of those teeth.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease that can cause changes in the placenta. In this study, quantitative changes of placenta were investigated using stereological methods. In this case-control study, 10 placentas from systemic lupus erythematosus pregnancy (antinuclear antibody>10), and 10 placentas from normal uncomplicated pregnancy were obtained from Imam Ali Hospital. Volume of placentas was estimated using Cavalieri''s principle. 3 full-thickness columns of each placenta were taken using systematic uniform random sampling (SURS). After fixation in modified Lillie''s solution, they were cut into 5 mm slices. 5-7 sections selected from each slice using SURS and stained by Masson’s trichrome. Then stereological analyses were done on 8-10 SURS fields of each section. Placental volume, absolute volume and volume density of chorionic villi, intervillous space, syncytiotrophoblast, fibrin and blood vessels in chorionic villi were estimated in both groups. The Mann Whitney-U test was employed to determine statistically significant differences between the means. Significant level was set at p<0.05. Total volume and volume density of fibrin and total volume and volume density of blood vessels significantly increased in SLE group in comparison with control group (p<0.01). Volume density of syncytiotrophoblast increased 50% in SLE group in comparison with control group, this increase was statistically significant (p<0.01). Results showed that systemic lupus erythematosus disease can cause significant changes in the structure of placenta that may be influential on the evolution and survival of fetus.

Regular blood transfusions to treat the patients with thalassemia major generate antibodies acting against red blood cells antigens. This immune response is called alloimmunity. This study was conducted with the purpose of determining the prevalence of alloantibodies and autoantibody, identifying the type of causative antigen, and recognizing the factors affecting alloimmunization among the patients with thalassemia major receiving blood. In this cross-sectional study, 385 patients with thalassemia major participated. After recording their demographic information, serum specimens taken from the patients were screened using pooled cells obtained from Biorad Company. The positive cases were examined to identify antibodies using panel cells obtained from Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization. In this study, SPSS 16 was employed for performing statistical analysis. Of the 385 patients, 69 subjects (17.9%) comprising 221 men and 164 women had alloantibody. In 57 cases, the antibody type was exactly identified. In 21 patients (5.5%) the existence of autoantibody was determined. The mean ages of the participants were within 14.3±7.5 and 13.3±7.9 years old for male and female groups, respectively. 28 patients had splenectomy and age at the onset of blood transfusion ranged from a month after birth to nine years. In these patients, the most significant blood group systems acted by alloantibodies were Rh and Kell. Since the results of this study show 17.9% incidence of alloimmunization in these patients, it is recommended to carry out injected blood compatibility test (cross-match) after antibody screening.

This study aimed to determine the value of the ESR, CRP and Leukocyte count in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. This is a retrospective (descriptive-analytic) study which was conducted from August 2007 until October 2008 in Zahedan. A sample of 426 available patients with suspected acute appendicitis –who had been admitted to Ali-ebne- Abitalib and Khatam-al-Anbia hospitals– were recruited to participate in this study. Patients’ demographic data, their blood samples for ESR, CPR and Leukocyte count were collected and sent to the laboratory for analysis. SPSS-16 was used to analyze data. A number of 426 patients were investigated. Nearly 59.9% were male and 81% of the patients had leukocytosis. 214 cases of inflamed papillae (50.4%), 102 cases of exudation (23.9%), 36 cases of gangrene (8.5%) and 25 cases of perforated appendicitis were observed during the operations. Seven cases had abscess or flegmon. Pathological reports of 84 patients (19.7) showed normal appendices. Sensitivity and specificity value of ESR and CRP tests were (71.9 & 39.0%) and (85.0% & 57.0%) respectively. Positive and negative predictive value (PPV and NPV) of both tests were 83, 25, 89, and 48% respectively. ESR and CRP and leukocytosis had significant statistical correlation with phonological results. The results of this study showed that in addition to physical examination, some basic laboratory findings such as ESR, CPR and leukocytosis can be helpful. Among these, the value of CPR in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis is higher.